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Information

• Member: Beowulf
• Studio: Hype-Odermic Studios
• Title: Imagine
• Premiered: 2003-08-25
• Categories:
  • Drama
  • Sentimental
• Song:
  • John Lennon Imagine
• Anime:
  • Now and Then, Here and There (Ima Soko ni Iru Boku)
• Participation:
  • Anime Weekend Atlanta 9 (Masters), Anime Weekend Atlanta 9 (Masters) (2003-09-26)
• Comments: My 8th video! This video was my entry into the Anime Weekend Atlanta 9 Masters Contest. If my videos were children, this one would be War's little sister. War is showing what is wrong with the world. This video is showing what could be. I've always wanted to do a video with this song but I was absolutely convinced that not a single anime would fit. Anime is not the medium of choice to convey a message about the world we live in, nor does it fare well when trying to be subtle. Anime is a world of extremes.
  
  With those thoughts in mind, I was talking to a friend about the situation. He suggested Now and Then Here and There. I had never seen it, but had seen excellent videos with it and decided if anything could fit, it would be that. He sent me the DVDs and I watched the entire 13 episode series in 24 hours. The show was absolutely brilliant. It was visually beautiful, subtle, intelligent, and conveyed a very similar message to the song. I began editing that night.
  
  The physical creation of this video was like pulling teeth. To say I was intimidated to the point of terror would be an understatement. This wasn't Nine Inch Nails or tecno or rap or even Radiohead. This was John Lennon. His legacy. This was the song that millions of people around the globe gathered behind to change the world they lived in. I was fucking with some heavy stuff, to put it bluntly. I absolutely could not screw this up. That would be like making a DBZ video with Stairway: A crime against humanity.
  
  Once I overcame the fear and just started doing what I wanted to do, things started flowing great. The visuals of NTHT are so simple yet so incredibly beautiful that its breath taking at some points. They also mimic the music, in a literal sense, as the song is incredibly simple and powerful. Also, as a result of sitting at my computer for hours to make a single cut, the scene selection shines as this video's strength. Every image has meaning with the song, there is no filler. All the lyrics are treated with appropriate reverence and synced too accordingly. I was worried sick about whether the video would look pretentious or not. After all, who am I to interpret John Lennon, one of the greatest revolutionarys of our time? I do feel that it came out well in the end.
  
  This video isn't a NTHT video. It isn't even really an AMV. All I wanted to do was show visually what I think it all means so I could better understand it myself. This is most self indulgent video I'll probably ever do. On the same note, I hope everyone can enjoy the video because I poured my heart an soul into it.
  
  Note: Please read the following notes describing, in necessary detail, what I think the video means. It is absolutely essential that you read these. This video is intended to be very subtle and people who haven't seen the anime (read: everyone) could easily not understand or misunderstand what I'm trying to say, in which case you would be left with a series of pretty looking imagery to a nifty song.
  
  Note: To quickly touch on the technical aspects of the video... there are none :P. NTHT has a softer warmer look than most newer animes that could lead viewers to believe bad capture quality is the reason. I tried my best to negate that by resizing it at a ridiculously sharp rate but its still very soft. Also the song was originally recorded in 1971. It is not as slickly produced as most people are accustomed too, but never fear, it was a CD rip and a remastered CD to boot.